


The Curse Of Millard Mansion

by MiyukiMash16



Category: Original Work
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-07-02 16:40:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15800505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiyukiMash16/pseuds/MiyukiMash16





	1. The Dare

"I can't believe I agreed to this. I swear if we don't get out of here alive, I'm going to kill you both." Cayleigh snapped as she and her two friends, Mason and Caleb, running down the hallway of the Mansion. As they were running, ducking for loose boards and avoiding holes, Cayleigh managed threw a few glances behind her; she can see that the apparition was getting closer.

"We'll worry about that later as soon as we get to the front door. For now, run and DON'T LOOK BACK!" Mason replied, shouting the last part. She, too, starting to regret following Caleb stupid dare of entering The Millard Mansion. Everybody knows the curse of The Millard Mansion, but nobody was brave or stupid enough to enter it. And yet, these three teenagers were the first to enter this cursed place. Why did Caleb even suggest such dare?

——–———————————————

(A few weeks earlier)

"Cay! Maze! There you guys are, I've been looking for the both of you." Caleb shouted as soon as he saw his friends along the school hallway. Both Cayleigh and Mason turned the heads around looking for the source of the noise. They saw him as he jogged towards them, bumping a few students along the way. He stopped in front of the two girls, panting from the lack of air. "Give a sec, there's something I need to tell you girls." Caleb said.

"Come on Cal, we're going to be late for Ms. Heinz’s class. You know how she hates tardiness. Whatever it is, can't it wait until AFTER her class." Mason said as she dragged her friends, urging them to walk faster. Not that she's afraid of Ms. Heinz, as the matter of fact; Ms. Heinz's Language Literature was the only class she was eager to attend. She hopes that one day she become a linguist, whether as a Linguistics Professor at some universities or as a Forensic Linguist with the Government, helping solving crimes.

During class, Cayleigh was distracted with Caleb behavior earlier. What was he's trying to say that almost made them late for their class, she had a bad feeling all of the sudden. She felt like time was lagged behind, she didn't even realize her name had been called by her teacher. Not until she felt a nudge behind her did she realize what happened.

"Right miss Eslcort, can you please translate these sentences on the board?" Ms. Heinz roared while tapping the board impatiently with her pointer. Cayleigh blushed, knowing that the whole class' attention was on her. She stood up, cleared her throat before answering.

"Yes Ms. Heinz, it means, 'Be strong, but not rude. Be kind, but not weak. Be bold, but not bully. Be humble, but not timid. Be proud, but not arrogant.'" Ms. Heinz nodded at her answer; she finally sat back to her chair, happily.

"Pay attention next time!" Ms. Heinz hissed before turning back to the board. Cayleigh gave a small nod. She could see Mason, who was on her left, shook her head and heard Caleb, who was behind her, letting out a muffled giggle. She sighed and decided to ignore them both.

As soon as class was over, the three friends walked out of the classroom, Mason decided to ask her friend of her behavior earlier.

"Cay, what happened back there? You never daydream in a class before. Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm okay. Don't worry about it." Cayleigh lied. "So Cal, what was so important that you want to tell us?" She successfully diverted their attention to Caleb, whose face was lit up.

"Do you guys know the Millard Mansion and its curse?" He smirked; Mason and Cayleigh gave a questioning look at him, before Mason spoke.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well..... Let’s just say somebody dared me to go inside, and I agreed!" Silly grin plastered on his face as he said that.

"What? Caleb Rivera Woods, are you out of your mind? That placed was haunted; it had been abandoned for decades now! Nobody, I repeat **nobody** dares to go inside. Do you have a death wish?" Cayleigh snapped. No wonder she had a bad feeling earlier. Caleb, although he's good looking, but he can be quite dense sometimes and always most likely to end up doing something stupid. Mason shook her head.

"She's right Cal. Why do even agreed to do it, what's it in for you?" Mason said softly. Between Caleb inanity and Cayleigh hotheadedness, Mason had to be the reasonable one.

"Nothing actually, but what important is that we get to experience it _together."_ Caleb smiled sheepishly as he said it. Mason threw her hands exasperatedly, in the air showing her defeat, while Cayleigh was flustered, she was almost burst into rage, but Mason managed to calm her down.

" _Rivera,_ why in any universe you think that the two of us would agree to this, _dare_ of yours?" Mason said calmly, while pinching the bridge of her nose. Caleb flinched whenever she called his middle name, knowing whenever she did that, it means she's dead serious.

"Because... I might need my besties to cover my back." Caleb said solemnly. Cayleigh was sent away by Mason somewhere else, before she could do anything that could make her end up in a jail.

"We'll talk about this again soon. We have to wait until Cayleigh cools down. Honestly, I don't even know how or why I am friends with you guys." Mason sighed as Caleb gave a silly grin. "Come on. It's almost lunchtime, let’s go find her."

They later found her in the cafeteria, sitting down at their usual spot. Head down on the table, with earphone plucked in, that's how she usually cools herself down. Mason gestured to Caleb to stay put while she went over to Cayleigh to check up on her. She slowly walked over her, trying to produce less noise, in order not to startle Cayleigh. Luckily, there were not many students around since its 'Science Convocational Day', mostly the students were busy with their science projects, and therefore the cafeteria will be abandon.

"Have you calmed yourself down?" Mason asked Cayleigh as she pulled up a chair next to Cayleigh. "Is it safe to call on Caleb, promise not to go all berserk on him?"

"I guess so." Cayleigh said without lifting up her head from the table. Mason waved her hand towards Caleb, mentioning him to come to the table. When he arrived, he sat next to Cayleigh, took her hand, putting some of her favorite chocolate bars as peace offerings. Cayleigh sent him a glare before accepting it.

“Sorry, shouldn’t have done that. I guess I was pretty excited at the mention of ‘haunted mansion’, I didn’t realize not many people like the idea of exploring it.” Caleb began.

“You damn right, you don’t!” Cayleigh barked at him, earning an elbow given by Mason. She growled at her, but then decided to let it slipped.

“Cal, why don’t you go and get something for us to eat, okay?” Caleb nodded at Mason’s request. He got up from his seat, walking towards the food. As Mason saw Caleb left, she then turned her head to Cayleigh.

“Cay, you got to stop that. He’s feeling guilty enough already.” When she saw Cayleigh didn’t respond, she shifted her chair closer to her, nudging her gently. Cayleigh just grunted in respond. “I know you don’t like going to haunted houses, but come on, let’s just go, just this once.” Cayleigh raised her head and sighed.

“Fine, but I won’t like it. If something should happen, I want you and Caleb to be held responsible. Understand?” Mason smiled at her and nodded. When Caleb approached them, she gave her a thumb up indicating their friends had agreed. Caleb moved towards Cayleigh, with a silly smile, earning a death glare given by Cayleigh.

\---------------

“Right, when are we going to do this?” Mason asked as everybody seated around in her bedroom. Both heads turned the attentions toward Caleb, who was staring back at them with empty expression on his face.

“How about we do it during the Festival? The whole town will be busy celebrating it; therefore nobody will notice us gone.” Caleb said after a while. In a few weeks, the townspeople of Herrilyn will be busy with Black Month Festival, a festival where the whole town was celebrating the dead by honoring them. The celebration usually last for a week.

“Yeah, right. If something should happen to us, nobody will notice it until it’s too late. We’ll be dead before people could find us.” Cayleigh scowled. She really hated the idea of going into the haunted house, but going inside the house while the whole town was busy celebrating the dead, was another level of anxiety for her.

“No. We’ll go during the last day of the celebration. Usually during that time, most of the town people stay inside their houses rather than at the graveyard. That way, if we should scream they can hear us.”

“Don’t jinx us, Maze.” Cayleigh was on the verge of crying as she said it.

“I’m not jinxing us. It is just a thought.” She sighed, trying to comfort Cayleigh as well as herself. “Both of you should head home soon, since it’s already this late. Tomorrow, we’ll head to the library; see if we can find more information on the mansion. I think we should at least have a little knowledge, so that we know what we’re up against on.”

Caleb was ready to head out. He bade farewell to the girls, walked out of Mason’s house. His house was just two blocks away from hers. Cayleigh decided she just spent the night at Mason’s since hers was quite far away.

“Maze, I’m just going to sleep here tonight. I already texted my mum and she texted your mum. They said okay.” Cayleigh was already lying on Mason’s bed as she said that. It is something that Cayleigh could do very comfortably as the girls had been best friends since they were small. Having a sleepover at each other’s’ houses was very common. Mason looked at her best friend, she pity her because she cannot stand being alone in a dark or ghost stories ever since they were small. She had the tendency to have nightmares afterward, and it did not end up nicely.

“Alright. Since tomorrow is Saturday, it won’t be a problem, I guess. Beside, you left your clothes here last time, so you have clean cloth for tomorrow.” Mason lied down next to her, already pulling the blanket over them. “Goodnight Cay.” Mason said as she turned off the light next to her, making the room dimmed. Only a small amount of light from the hallway had entered the room.

“Goodnight Maze.” Both girls fell asleep instantly.


	2. 02 The Mansion’s Backstory

The next morning, the three friends went to the National Library looking for information on the cursed mansion. Even after a few hours of browsing, the trio couldn’t find any useful information, just a few news clippings from the some old newspapers that mentioned a few deaths surrounding which only dated a few years back.

“This is useless. There’s nothing in here that could help us understand what really happened at the mansion.” Mason groaned as she threw the newspaper on the table. Caleb darted his eyes around, looking for Mrs. Cadmus, the strict Head of Library. He let out a relieved sighed as she was too busy to pay attention to the teenagers. “Who do we know had lived around here who, at least could tell us the origin of the mansion?” They went quiet for a while before Cayleigh spoke.

“All I could think of is Mr. McCrabree, who lives three blocks away from me. From what he told me, his family had been lived here for five generations, if we want to hear full story on the mansion’s background, it’s him.”

“Are you sure that’s wise, kids from school said that McCrabree is a senile old man, can’t even remember his own kids these days.” Caleb scrunched his nose in disbelieved as he heard Cayleigh explanation.

“Don’t believe everything people tell you, Woods. Even if people talk about it, doesn’t mean it’s true.” Cayleigh said, sending him a glare. “I’ve talked to him, he’s alright.”

“Sorry.” Caleb hung his head in shame. Mason waved her hand, trying to clear the tension.

“Alright, that’s enough.” Mason shot a sympathetic smile to him before turning to talk to Cayleigh, “Do you think he can meet with us? The sooner we meet him, the better.”

“Let me just go home now to give him a head start.” Cayleigh got up from her chair, turned around heading towards the Main Door, before turned her head again towards her friends, “I’ll text you as soon as I get confirmation from him.” She waved her hand slightly before disappeared into the crowds.

Mason continued reading the newspapers in front of her before groaning, hitting the table furiously as she was frustrated with the lack of report she got from the articles. This time, Mrs. Cadmus was standing just a few feet away from them. She shushed and giving death glare at them. Both gave her an apologetic smile, before getting up; packed up their stuff, ready to leave.

“Come on. I think we should wait at the café near Cay’s house. I’m getting hungry anyway.” Mason suggested as soon as they were out of the Library. As soon as they arrived at the café, they decided to order their foods first without waiting for Cayleigh. After done placing their orders, Mason and Caleb had small talks regarding whatever that was on their mind. Mainly, it was about how excited Caleb that they soon going to explore the haunted mansion. Not long after, the waitress brought their foods, and the two teenagers were soon began eating. Mason had sent a text to Cayleigh, telling to meet them at the café near her house after she had done.

The duo had finished their lunch, but still no signs of Cayleigh. Mason became restless. Is she okay? Did she upset old man McCrabree? Just she about to send her a text, Cayleigh came through the door, panting.

“What happened? Are you okay? I thought something had happened to you. You didn’t even reply to my texts!” Mason was furious. Cayleigh smiled apologetically to her.

“Sorry. When I first explain to Mr. McCrabree, he was reluctant to agree. Said it was a dangerous place for us, heck for anybody to be. Then I told him of our plan, which was to go there during the last day of the Festival, he agreed. That is, after he made me promise only to look at it from afar.” She turned her head towards Caleb, “That is what we’re going to, right _Caleb_?”

“Err… yes, of course.” Caleb was avoiding Cayleigh’s eyes as he said it. Both girls narrowed their eyes at him, but decided to let it slide.

“Should we go now or do you want to eat first, Cay?” Cayleigh went quiet for a while, before answering Mason’s question.

“Nah, I’ll just eat later after we get back from Mr. McCrabree’s. Mom said to tell you guys, she was making Chicken Pot Pie, wants you to stay for dinner.” Both Mason and Caleb grinned at Cayleigh’s explanation. Her mother was a chef for a four-star restaurant and was the best cook in the neighborhood.

After paying for their lunches earlier, the trio then made their way to Mr. McCrabree’s, making a pit stop at Cayleigh’s first to fetch some stuff they might needed. After bidding farewell to Mrs. Eslcort, the three were heading toward old man McCrabree’s. Both Mason and Caleb pushed Cayleigh forward to knock on his door, alone. She sighed, went to the front door, knocked on it.

After a few knocks, Mr. McCrabree slowly opened the door. He was happy to see Cayleigh, but frowned at the two teenagers behind her, as he never seen them before. After Cayleigh explained who they were, he gave them a smile and asked them to come in. Caleb and Mason looked at each other, feeling hesitate to enter. Cayleigh nudged them forward when she saw them. The two teenagers finally moved from their spots, reluctantly.

As they were ushered into the living room by Cayleigh, McCrabree vanished into the kitchen, only to emerge a few seconds later with a tray of teas and snacks. He gestured the three to enjoy themselves with the treats, which they did, happily.

“So, Mr. McCrabree, Cay said that you know the history of Millard Mansion?” Mason began. McCrabree sighed before he spoke up.

“Please call me Tim, and why would you want to go that horrible place. That place brought nothing but tragedy to those who had lived there.”

“Actually, Mr. McCrabree—”

“Tim.”

“ _Tim_ , we were always curious about the mansion, and were planning to write about it.” Mason had to lie, afraid that if she told him the truth, Tim would refuse to tell them the story. “As you can see, even our library doesn’t have enough information of what had happened inside the house.” Tim only nodded at her explanation. If only he knew she was lying to him.

“Very well. My story might not be very accurate as it was passed down from generations, starting from my great, great, great grandpa Lou.” Tim began as the three sat down comfortably, getting closer to him. “The mansion was first built during early 1800s by the Millard family, which consists of the father, mother, a young teenage daughter and a small son. The Millard, at that time, was considered as wealthy family. They had a few chained hotels throughout the country. The profits gained from the hotels could sustain for generations to come.”

“But all that suddenly changed when the father was involved in an accident, which resulting him losing both of his feet. The family spent too much money trying to fix him, as we all know their medical care was not as good as ours. Eventually the hotels were neglected, thus soon were closed, the family had to file for bankruptcy. Living as a poor was hard for them, especially for the daughter, which later fell into depression. She told their neighbors that sometimes she said she could hear voices spoke to her, telling her to do unspeakable things. ”

“One day, she could not take it anymore, said she had to end it all. She took her father’s handgun, which her father always kept in his studies, and a kitchen knife. With the handgun, she shot her father, in the head resulting him died immediately. When the mother heard the noise, she came to her husband’s side, only to find him lying in a pool of blood, while her daughter was standing there, smiling with a gun in her hand. She screamed at the sight, and turned away to run, but the daughter was fast. She fired another round and it hit her mother at the back. Even though she was shot, she was struggling, trying to reach her son’s room. Seeing this, the daughter threw the gun away, pulled out the knife and stabbed her mother instead, for a few times. As she was stabbing her mother, the door to her brother room was opened, slowly. The son gasped at what he saw. When he saw what his sister was doing, he realized that it wasn’t his sister; he locked the door and went into hiding. But the sister knew this; she kept banging on the door, almost broken into half. When the door finally opened, she scanned the room as she entered and found the place he’d been hiding. As she pulled him out from his hiding place, the boy screamed at the sight of his sister. Blood dripping from her face, with a sickening smile. He was crying, begging her not to do it and asked her to remember him. The sister, who had lost control of herself, began to stab him, mercilessly, which caused the boy to die instantly. After a few stabs, she stopped, looking around. When she finally realized what she was doing, she began to cry while holding onto her brother’s lifeless body. She carried him outside and saw what had happened to her parents. She put their body together in a room. She grabbed a piece of paper, wrote something on it. She then took out a rope into the room where her family was, and hung herself.”

“The mansion was abandoned soon after that. People did try lived there, but only for a while. Death always came, especially those families with children. It is said to be the spirit of the daughter. The reasons why she did that, we never know. All I know was she was unable to move on, for some reasons.” As Tim ended his story, the trio wiped their tears away.

“What was in the letter that she wrote?” Cayleigh said as she sniffled.

“I’m afraid we don’t know. Nobody dare to enter the house after that.” The three just nodded at his respond. No one can think of anything else to say at this moment since they were still too wrapped up with Tim’s story. They decided they should go considering it was almost dusk outside. As soon as they were outside, they said thanks to Tim before walking toward Cayleigh’s to have supper.

After they had finished, both Caleb and Mason decided to hang out at Cayleigh’s room for a while before heading home.


	3. 03 The Planning

As Monday morning came, they decided to attend their classes as usual. Tim’s story was playing over and over in Cayleigh’s head, making her to rethink their decisions of going in. A part of her couldn’t help but feeling sorry toward the Millard family especially the daughter. She lost her entire family in an instance, because of what she did, unknowingly. She decided to meet up with her two friends as soon as class ended to discuss more.

Both Mason and Caleb can’t help but wondered as to why Cayleigh suddenly deployed an emergency meeting between them. As soon as the bell rang, indicating it was already lunchtime, the three soon gathered around at their favorite spot, which was a secluded corner, not far from the cafeteria.

Mason and Caleb arrived at their spot, only to find Cayleigh, who was restless and squirming, not even noticing their presences. They looked at each other before Mason decided to say something.

“What’s on your mind, Cay?” Cayleigh jumped upon hearing Mason’s voice, her face turned white. “Oh, I’m sorry. Are you okay?” Mason and Caleb rushed to Cayleigh’s side when she started to shake a little.

“Yeah, I’m alright. Sorry about that, just had lot of things on my mind right now.” replied Cayleigh as she started to calm down. Both Mason and Caleb pulled up a chair each, sat down next to her.

“So, what was the reason you called us? We haven’t done that since we were discussing how to help Caleb with his stalker problem.” Mason chuckled remembering the incident a few years back, earning a glared from Caleb.

“I’ve been thinking, maybe we should just drop the idea of getting inside the mansion.” Mason was quiet as Cayleigh spoke, but not Caleb.

“But, why? I thought you’ve promised to go together!” He whined. He was more disappointed than he was frantic. Mason couldn’t help feeling sorry for him. He was all excited as the day drew nearer, couldn’t stop talking about it.

“Caleb, don’t you feel anything especially after hearing the story from Tim? Don’t you think we should at least respect the deceased?” Cayleigh was practically screaming on top of her lung.

“Yes, I do feel sad. But, I think we should still go inside. I want to know the content of her letter, and I want to know why she still haunted the mansion. In that way, we may be able to put her to rest eternally.” Caleb was enraged, never had he acted this way before. Even Mason and Cayleigh were shocked. “Please Cay. I’m not trying to be a selfish brat, after hearing Mr. Tim’s story, I really feel sorry to the Millards, especially the daughter. Please.”

Mason just watched her friends bickering. She could see that Caleb was now begging to Cayleigh to continue with their plan, and saw that Cayleigh was sort of contemplating. She shook her head instead. Before Cayleigh could answer the bell rung. Mason and Cayleigh were getting ready for their next class, but Caleb was still sitting on his chair, waiting.

“Let me think about it one more time.” Cayleigh sighed, “I tell you later after school.” Caleb jumped in joy, ran to give her a hug. Cayleigh was kind of shocked with the sudden hug, but hugged him back, nevertheless.

“All right, princesses. We should get going now. Unless you want to spend your whole afternoon scrubbing Mrs. Carleen’s classroom floor, I suggest that we make a move now.” The three of them shuddered at Mason’s statement. The last time that they were late to her class, she made them cleaned the entire gym, plus the locker room and shower.

Cayleigh couldn’t really concentrate on her studies after listening to Caleb’s reasoning. Part of her kind of agreed with what he said earlier. May be by knowing the content of the letter might lead them to the truth of what had happened, and they might find a way to put the daughter’s ghost to rest.

Classes were finally over for the day. Cayleigh made way to her friends, hastily. From afar, she could see Caleb was restless while Mason, effortlessly, trying to calm him down. When Caleb saw Cayleigh, he decided to go to her instead, leaving Mason behind, alone.

Cayleigh watched as Caleb panted in front of her. She gave him a look before she could speak, making Caleb feeling more nervous than he was before.

“I really feel that we shouldn’t go on with the plan and that we should leave the mansion alone.” She began. Caleb was going to protest her, but she put out her hand before he could speak. By now, Mason was already joining them; her eyes darted between Caleb and Cayleigh. “But, after hearing Cal’s explanation earlier, can’t believe I’m going to say this, I think he’s right. We should at least try to find the letter, and help freeing the daughter’s trapped soul.”

“Oh my god! Thanks Cay!” Caleb said rushing to give her a bone-crushing hug. “You won’t regret it, I promise!” he smiled sheepishly at her.

“I think I already did.” Cayleigh sighed as Mason patted her back, giving comfort. “Is it too late for me to take it all back?” her attention then turned to Mason, who was laughing beside her, Caleb, was too busy celebrating.

“Oh come on. Look how happy Cal is. Don’t worry; we will make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid while we’re in the mansion. What could go wrong?” She patted her back once more, before decided to join Caleb walking back home.

“I hope so.” Cayleigh sighed silently, before joining with her friends.


	4. 04 Cayleigh’s Breakdown

Without them knowing, the celebration of the Black Month Festival was nearing. This means, the time for the trio to enter the mansion also closed. Cayleigh can’t helped but feeling more edgy, whereas Caleb was ecstatic. He told everybody he knew, especially the seniors that initiated the dare, telling them it was still on.

On the other hand, for Cayleigh, she found herself becoming more withdrawn from her friends. Mason noticed the change of behavior and she was concerned for her, while Caleb hadn’t notice at all. Mason was irritated with Caleb’s behavior that she sometimes had to snap his head a few times, reminded him of Cayleigh’s condition.

“We should go and talk to Cay later after school.” Mason said as she and Caleb down at the cafeteria. Cayleigh was nowhere to be seen, again. “She’s feeling more and more anxious that she became distant from us.” She sighed as Caleb was busy stuffing his face. “How are you able to eat at times like this?”

“But, I’m hungry.” He pouted.

“Do you not care about your friend at all, Caleb?” Mason scolded at him.

“Right, sorry.” Caleb apologized as he pushed his food away from him, but he sighed soon after he did that. Mason stared at him, disbelieved; she then waved at him telling him to continue eating. Caleb was happy to comply.

After school was over, Mason decided that they needed to go to Cayleigh’s house. Once they reached her house, Mason glanced at the empty driveway, telling that Cayleigh was home alone at that time. She knocked on the front door a few times, before it was opened by distraught looking Cayleigh. Without saying anything, Cayleigh gestured for them to come in. The two looked at each before following Cayleigh’s step.

“Cay, we haven’t seen you around. Are you okay?” Caleb asked as he and Mason plopped down on a Cayleigh’s bed.

“Do I look okay to you?” Cayleigh scoffed, her tone was cold. He gulped whereas Mason just shook her head.

“Cay, Caleb and I are concern about you, that’s why we are here now.” Mason said softly, trying not to add fuel to Cayleigh’s fury.

“Now, you’ve seen me. Would you please leave?” she motioned to the door, “You know the way out.” She turned away from them, before putting on her headphones with blasting music. Mason bit her lip while dragging Caleb along with her.

“Let’s just try again tomorrow. Maybe she feels much better tomorrow.” Mason said before the two separated. As came the next day, Cayleigh was still the same. Ignoring them both just as Mrs. Eslcort brought beverages to her room.

“Cayleigh Ozella Eslcort is that how you treat your best friends?” she scolded while passing out the tray to Mason, scrunching her eyes at her daughter.

“No, mom.” She was mumbling her reply, shaking her head at the same time.

“Good, they come here because they are worry about you, so you better treat them right.” Cayleigh just nodded, looking at the floor, not wanting to face directly her mother’s wrath. Mrs. Eslcort gave a nod to the two teenagers, before walking out of the room. Mason sighed as she got up from her seat and sat herself on Cayleigh’s bed, next to Cayleigh.

“Sorry Cay. We didn’t mean to upset you.” Mason said as she put her hand around Cayleigh before continuing, “I know that you had bad experiences with stuff like this, but know this, you won’t be going in alone, and Caleb and I are also going.” She motioned Caleb to approach Cayleigh.

“Yeah, Cay. Sorry.” Caleb said as he crouched down in front of Cayleigh, holding her hand. She sighed before she started to talk.

“Well, I’m sorry as well. After telling you guys that we could continue with our plan, instead of coming up with a plan, I acted like a big baby.” She flashed them with a weak smile.

“If you really feeling uncomfortable, we could forfeit the idea of going in.” Caleb said while staring at her face.

“Really? You would do that for me?” Caleb just nodded at her question, but Cayleigh could see sadness in his eyes. She sighed, “No, we should just get on with it,” Caleb’s face was lit, “Beside, I did promised to you, didn’t I? What kind of best friend I am if I break my promises to my besties.” She smiled to both Mason and Caleb; Mason patted her hand while Caleb let out a small whoop while doing a victory dance, which caused the two girls into big laughter. Just then Mrs. Eslcort entered the room, after hearing the commotion from her daughter’s room.

“I take it that you kids have work out your problems?” she asked and got three nods from them as an answer. “Well, that’s good. Come on downstairs. I’ve cooked some triple cheese lasagna, with tomato soup and bread. Eat before you leave.”

Without needing to be told twice, all three teenagers raced downstairs, leaving Mrs. Eslcort laughing while shaking her head watching them moved fast at the mentioning of the word ‘food’. As she reached downstairs, she saw the three teenagers and her husband, who just got back home from work, all were eager to eat _the ‘out-of-mind-and-soul’_ food that Mrs. Eslcort had prepared. As they ate, they threw in small chats amongst themselves, not realizing the sun had already set.


	5. Breaking In: The Beauty of the Mansion

The final day of the festival finally came. Cayleigh was getting more and more fidgety as the trio walked towards the mansion’s compound. As they walked, passing by a few houses, they could see that most of the town’s folk were in their own houses, mostly still enjoying their meals.

The three decided to spend at their nights at Cayleigh’s, before heading to the Millards’. They told their parents that they were just going to do some research for their school projects at the Library. A lie they had to tell to get them to enter the mansion without disruption.

Cayleigh chewed her lip harshly as they made their way through a hole that can be found at the derelict wooden gates. Not only she had lied to her parents, but she and her group of friends decided to break-in into a house. Even if that house was now abandoned, and does not have any owner any more, Cayleigh still felt like they’re committing a felony. She just hoped that they won’t be thrown into jail or something that is if the ghost of the daughter doesn’t get to them first.

As Cayleigh was busy debating with herself, she didn’t even realized they had reached at the bottom of the stairs. She stopped for a while, admiring the beauty of the mansion. Before, she never really took a good look at it. Now, as she standing in front of it, she could see a huge, two-storey mansion that was once standing tall. Although it was surrounded by dead trees and vines, Cayleigh couldn’t help but staring at the mansion. Though as if, she was entranced by it. She shook her head at that thought. How could you be enticed by a house? If only she knew what was happening.

The trio made their way through the main door. At a slight touch, the door opened, very slowly. Producing, an eerie creaking sound as it moved. They crept slowly, into the main hallway. As soon as they entered, the main door was suddenly slammed shut, making the three to jump off their feet. Cayleigh began to tremble, her face was paled as Mason grabbed her hand. Caleb, who was in the lead, freaked out for a while, but decided to man it up since he was the one suggested the idea of coming here. Cobwebs and dusts covered basically every inch of the house, making it difficult for them to move around without getting any of those stuck to them.

They walked down the hall, which was outstretched to way back, until they came upon two different rooms, facing each other. On the left, they could see what appeared to a luxurious living room, still with a complete set of tattered sofas and a broken rounded coffee table. Next to it was a huge dining area, with a big, round dining table that could seat more than ten people. The dining area was connected to a medium size kitchen that was furnished with wooden cupboards and counters. And lastly, next to the kitchen was a small room, which was used by the servants as their breakroom.

The room across the living room was just one massive hall. Nothing much occupied the room, except a few chairs and tables folded at corners of the hall. The hall was probably used for parties and balls by the owners. At the end of the hall, there was a massive, spiral staircase, which led to second floor.

Five rooms can be found on the second floor. They turned their attention first at the first room on the left, which was appeared to be the young son’s room, with his pictures still attached to the wall of the bedroom. No other furniture could be found, except a wooden trunk filled with boys toys. Walking out, slowly, from the boy’s room, they moved on to a room next to it. The door of the room was ripped out of the hinge; they could just easily peek inside with getting in.

It was the same as the room before, no bed nor chairs, but a small rounded table with very old pictures of a young lady, dressed in vintage clothes; and an opened wardrobe with a beautiful cream-colored dress, just like the young lady was wearing in one of the pictures, hanging inside the wardrobe. Mason and Caleb were ready to move on to the room next to it, but Cayleigh was glued to where she was standing. She was drawn to the hanged dress, as if someone or something was pulling her towards it.

“Cay, are you alright?” it was Mason’s voice that broke her hypnotized state. She could not voice out her answer, but nodded instead. Mason, seeing her friend acting like that, decided to pull her away, “Come on. Let’s move on. I don’t like it here.” She had to drag Cayleigh away from the room as she saw no movement from Cayleigh. Just as the girls walked away, a white mist suddenly forming behind them, but none of the girls paid any attention to it. The mist suddenly dispersed as the girls were now further away from the room.

Caleb was already inside the third room when the two girls arrived, but he quickly ushering them out as there wasn’t anything particular about the room. They moved to the room across the guest bedroom.

Upon opening the door, their jaws were dropped. The room, which was the Master bedroom, was massive. It was the size of two of the previous rooms combined with a lot of space left. In the middle of the room was a king sized bed, which could fit five or more people. On the left side of the room, a bathroom, along with a gigantic bath tub and shower, can be found on one side, and a walk-in closet on the other. While on the right side of the room a small sitting area which consists of one armchair, one loveseat and a small squared table, along with a small fireplace. Although dusts and webs covered every nooks and crannies of the room, you still can see that this room was once standing elegantly.

Finally, they had arrived at the last room, which was a study room for the father. Not much of furniture could be seen except a simple work desk and a chair, sitting in the middle of the room. Although, the walls of the study was basically made of cupboards filled with hundreds of books. The three decided to look for the missing letter written by the daughter. As they continued to search, Cayleigh started to feel cool, as if there was a small breeze coming from somewhere. She thought it was weird because there weren’t any windows or holes can be found, she decided to ignore it and continued to search with her friends.

They were too immersed with the task at hand that they did not realize someone or something was watching them.


	6. Sophronia Millard’s Confession

The three busied themselves, shuffling around the study room, still looking for the whereabouts of the lost letter. They tried looking under the table or any small spaces they could think the letter could fit, in case it got flown away. After thirty minutes they stopped as tired and dejected overcame them.

“I don’t think we could find the letter, it has been more than hundreds years now.” Mason stated as she plopped down on the chair. “How do we even know there is a letter, I mean, nobody ever seen it.”

“According to Tim, there should be one, but I’m not sure either. I don’t know what to believe anymore.” Caleb sighed. Both of their attentions were suddenly turned toward Cayleigh, who was standing quietly at one corner, facing the bookcase. “Cay, are you alright?” he said as he approached her. However, before he could managed to get to her, Cayleigh abruptly turned, with a blank facial expression, both of her eyes shown no life, and spoke with a distorted voice.

“YOU DARE TO DISTURB MY PEACE. YOU SHALL FACE MY WRATH.” Both teenagers backed away slowly, shocked with what had happened to their friend, it seemed that she was being possessed by the ghost of Millard’s daughter. The possessed Cayleigh then flew towards them, trying to reach for them. Screaming with all their hearts, both Mason and Caleb decided to head out of the room, heading toward the staircase.

They hurried down the stairs and heading for the front door. Yet, no matter how much they had run, the front door seemed to be out of their reached. It was like the hallway had been stretched, magically. Finally, they collapsed on the floor, both panting. Mason let out small cry as Caleb kept looking out for the possessed Cayleigh, who had stopped chasing them for a while now, and nowhere to be seen.

“Maze, I think we should continue looking for the letter. I had a feeling that somewhere inside that letter, the daughter wrote on how to stop her, or something.” Caleb said as he stood up, extended his hand to Mason, to help her up. Mason, who had stopped crying, wiped the remaining tears on her face before took his hand. As they walked, Mason was clutching tightly onto his arm, which Caleb could have sworn it was probably swollen by now, they decided to go back upstairs, slowly, while looking out for the possessed Cayleigh.

After looking around carefully, they treaded carefully to the study room, glad that Cayleigh was nowhere to be seen, for now. After thirty minutes of another fruitless attempt to find the letter, Mason let out a frustrated groan, before kicking one of the bookcases, making a book to fall on her head.

“Ouch! Darn book, I ought to—” Mason cried, almost kicking the book out of anger, before spotting something stuck in between the pages. She bent down, picking up the book, reading the title inside her head, before taking a good look at it. Flipping the pages carefully, until she came across an old and bloodied letter. Mason gasped as soon as she read the content of the letter. “Cal, come here, quick!”

Caleb, who was half way across the room, jogged to her, “What, what is it? What do you—?” before he could finish, Mason handed him the bloodied letter. “Maze, is that what I think it is?” Mason could only give him a nod as she was still in shock. Taking a very deep breath, the two sat down on the floor to read the letter.

_To whom it may concern,_

_My name is Sophronia Millard and this is my confession. I just committed a very unforgivable crime; I just killed my whole family. I admitted that I have been hearing voices in my head for days now, telling me to do it. I tried my best to ignore it by locking myself in my room, away from my family._

_However, today I could not keep it any longer. Although I had no memories of what had happened as I was blacked out, but as soon as I came to my senses, I saw the lifeless body of my dear baby brother. I cried all my heart while hugging him. I carried him outside, where I saw another dead body. This time, it was my mother. I carried them both to my father’s study room, where again I saw another dead body of my father. I shall join my family soon, I know I it will bring them back, but at least I get to be with my family, once more. Goodbye._

Mason and Caleb were both shocked after they had finished reading it. Mason slowly wiped a small tear that ran down her cheek, while Caleb sniffled a few times before both of stood up.

“Well, now we know that the daughter was feeling remorse of what she had done. But, it doesn’t explain why she was still in this mansion, haunting it and terrorizing those people that had lived here before. Or why she possessed Cay for that matter.” Mason pursed her lips after saying that, her mind was spinning like crazy as she was trying to put the pieces together.

After being quiet for a while, Caleb spoke, “I think we should try look for Cayleigh, this might help us to get her back,” he pulled out a small vial of liquid and a small silver necklace from his pocket as he continued, “Got this two days ago from a priest, holy water and a blessed necklace.”

Mason stared at him in disbelieved, “Are you sure that’s going to work? Because if it’s don’t, we’re both dead.” Her cheeks were flushed with anger by now, but Caleb quickly reassured her by saying it will work. They quickly scrambled out of the room, shouting for Cayleigh’s name. It took them seconds before the possessed Cayleigh, who was now wearing the dress that Mason had seen before, floating right before them.

“WHAT DO YOU WANT?” Cayleigh hissed, again with a very disturbing voice.

“We want our friend back!” as soon as Caleb finished, he splashed the content of the vial on Cayleigh, where she dropped on the floor, screaming in pain. Mason quickly put the necklace around Cayleigh’s neck, making her to stop moving for a while. Both Mason and Caleb held each other’s hand for assurance, until Cayleigh began to stir and mumbled something about a headache.

“Cay, you’re back!” both of her friends rushed to her side, to give her a hug. She blinked her eyes, trying to understand what just happened.

“Did I go anywhere? Why do I feel like my head had been smashed by thousands hammer?” She began as she tried to break away from the hugs, “And why the frick frack am I wearing a dress?” panic can be detected as she mentioned the last part.

The other two looked at each other, before Caleb asked, “Don’t you remember what happened?” seeing Cayleigh just shook her head at his question, he continued, “What was the last thing you remember?”

“I uh, I remember we were looking for the letter in that study room.” She tapped her chin, as if in a deep thought, before her eyes widen, “Oh, the letter. What of it? Did you find it?” They nodded as Mason handed her the letter they found earlier, and she began to read it, her expression gradually changed into horror as she went on. “That was horrible. I couldn’t imagine what she felt during the time her sanity came back. Isn’t there something we can do to help her?”

Caleb saw that both of the girls’ faces turned gloomy as soon as Cayleigh said it. He shook his head, letting out a heavy sigh before he could speak, “I might have a way, but I’m not sure. However, in order to do so, we might need to call her out once more.”

“What? Are you out of your mind? What if she possesses me again or any of you, for that matter?” Cayleigh was fuming by now. Even though she had no idea what happened to her earlier, but she did not like it, not one bit.

“Relax, Cay. I know what I am doing. I got this.” Caleb patted her back slightly, giving her some assurance, but Cayleigh was still ranting. “Come on, you two. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we get out from this hell hole.” Caleb said it with no emotion on his face, but inside he felt like there were thousands bulls, stomping inside his stomach. He gulped, before joining his friend, calling out the ghost of Sophronia Millard, one more time.


	7. The Unsuccessful Negotiation

The three teenagers stood, frozen, as the spectral figure of Sophronia Millard was floating in front of them, bearing an empty expression on her face. The girls pushed a reluctant Caleb to confront the ghost alone. The floating ghost in front of him still had not shown any sign of movement whatsoever.

After a few steps, Caleb was now standing only a few feet away from her, when she suddenly turned into a dark mist and screeched, “WHAT DO YOU WANT?” the walls surrounding them shook due to her scream.

Caleb gulped and muttered something as he walked closer to her, “Erm, excuse me miss Millard. I was just wondering, maybe we could help you?” Caleb could feel that his shirt was now drenched with his sweat, but he ignored it as he was too scared to move a muscle.

However, the ghost only let out a sickening cackle, before she answered, “WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I WANT YOUR HELP? WHAT A MERE MORTAL LIKE YOU COULD DO TO HELP ME?”

This time, it was Maison’s turn to speak, “We know what you have done; and we know that you felt remorse about it.” she pursed her lips for a moment before continued, “We would like for you to be able to move on, and be with your family once again.”

The ghost in front of them suddenly became very quiet, making them feeling very nervous. All of the sudden, she spoke, but this time in less menacing tone, “HOW?”

The three of them gave each other a small glance, before Caleb stepped up, “I want to help you to move on, and I have an uncle who could do that.” The ghost once again stayed quiet, but then she let out another loud cackle before her aura suddenly turned into murderous red.

“FOOLISH CHILDREN! IT IS NOT EASY FOR YOU TO VANQUISH ME! I HAVE BEEN HAUNTING THIS PLACE FOR A LONG TIME, AND YOU COME HERE SAYING YOU WANT TO GET RID OF ME!” the ghost let out an eerily, evil laugh and turned into black smokes, starting to chase them. The trio let out a shriek before turned the other way heading for the stairs and started to descendant it.

"I can't believe I agreed to this. I swear if we don't get out of here alive, I'm going to kill you both." Cayleigh snapped as she and her two friends, Maison and Caleb, running down the hallway of the Mansion. As they were running, ducking for loose boards and avoiding holes, Cayleigh managed threw a few glances behind her; she can see that the apparition was getting closer.

"We'll worry about that later as soon as we get to the front door. For now, run and DON'T LOOK BACK!" Maison replied. They were just a few feet away from the front door. Maison gathered the last of her strength before grabbing her friends and ran out of the mansion. Just as they got out, the black shadow that had chased them suddenly stopped, and turned back into the astral form of Sophronia Millard, before the front door was slammed.

For a little while, no one dared to move a muscle. Maison was the first to gather herself as she stood up, slowly. Followed by Caleigh and Caleb next. It was quiet as the three of them descended down the stairs quietly.

As they were walking back to Cayleigh’s place, the sun was about to set, therefore, they made their way back, hastily. They let out a relived sighs as they reached the doorway in front of Cayleigh’s house.

“So, what do we do now?” Maison spoke for the first time since they leaved the Mansion.

“I don’t know. I try to ask my uncle, see if he can help us in any way. I’ll see you Monday?” Caleb said as he walking towards his home.

“Wait, you’re going home? And why Monday, aren’t we going to meet tomorrow?” Maison was upset.

“Yeah, I have to go to my uncle’s house tomorrow, though. If the coast is clear, I’ll try to brought it to him and ask for his opinions on how we shall proceed.” Caleb said in apologizing manner before he turned solemn, “Hope he has some ideas, because I felt sorry towards the ghost, though.”

Both girls could only nodded their heads, not really knew how to respond to his words as they too feeling sorry for her. They had hoped that Caleb could find a way to break Sophronia Millard’s curse and be with her family once again.

Mrs. Eslcort offered both Caleb and Maison to join them for supper before they decided to go home, respectively. They decided to forget what had happened to them during their visit to the Mansion, because no one could ever know they had been there.

“Cayleigh, where did you get that necklace?” Cayleigh looked down as her mother asked her that, mentally cursing herself for forgetting to remove it before coming home. Maison and Caleb looked at each other, gulping, but Cayleigh was quick to answer.

“Caleb got this for me, because he had forgotten my birthday last year. Afraid that he could forget again, he decided to give early this year.” Cayleigh smiled at them as she talked, while both Caleb and Maison shot her a grateful look.

“Well, that’s nice. Now come along, children. Finish your food quickly before you go home.” A chorus of ‘Yes ma’am’ could be heard as they started to gulp down their food. Soon after, Caleb was ready to head home, while Maison decided to stay for the night. She said that now she had been fully fed, all she ever want to do was lie down. In reality, she actually did not want for Cayleigh to be alone after what she had been through. Cayleigh was feeling thankful towards her best friend.

The girls fell asleep not soon after.


End file.
